Terrapins Threatened With Extinction

Bernama.com – Noor Shamsiah Mohamed

SETIU, Oct 26 (Bernama) — Terrapins are listed as among the world’s 25 species being threatened by extinction, yet there are those who could not be bothered by this frightening fact.

Similar to what is happening to its cousin, the turtle, the river terrapin is not safe from man-made dangers like the fishing nets, boat engine’s rotor blades, river pollution and sand-dredging.

The habit of eating the oval-shaped terrapin eggs, available at RM4 each in the market, has made the extinction threat more acute to the terrapins.

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu’s (UMT) head for terrapin conservation and research project, Prof Dr Chan Eng Heng, said the river terrapins can only be found in several countries including Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

He said in Malaysia, various threats have diminished the number of river terrapins and they can only be found in states like Kedah which has 20-40 nests, Perak (30-50 nests) and Terengganu.

RIVER TERRAPIN

Dr Chan said in Terengganu, the river terrapins can be found at Sungai Setiu (20-40 nests), Sungai Terengganu (50-80 nests) and Sungai Dungun (40-80 nests).

With each passing year, the number of terrapin nests is decreasing and this is a cause for concern and needs strict measures to ensure the survival of the terrapins.

Several initiatives have been undertaken by government agencies like the Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) and UMT to conserve the terrapins who can live up to 60 years, reaching the weigh of 50 kg.

Since four years ago, UMT which is the former Kolej Universiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia (Kustem), has conducted a terrapin conservation project at Sungai Setiu.

The project has been able to improve terrapin egg-hatching from 65 percent four years ago to 79 percent this year.

“Since four years ago, UMT had been buying the terrapin eggs at RM4 each from egg collectors who are staying along Sungai Setiu, particularly those in Kampung Mangkok.

UNIVERSITY

“Within that period, the university has acquired 1,255 terrapin eggs and managed to hatch 236 in 2004, 147 (2005), 275 (2006) and 180 this year.

Dr Chan, the Professor at the Oceanography Institute, said the hatching rate for this year has improved due to the collaboration of Kampung Mangkok residents who hatched the eggs at areas near the nests as compared to the previous method of bringing back the eggs to UMT’s hatchery.

This method has reduced the destruction of the terrapin’s embryo, which happened during the movement to the incubation and hatchery sites.

He said the biggest challenge in the conservation effort is to educate the people on the importance of conserving the terrapins.

“The most difficult aspect is to convince them not to eat the terrapin eggs as it has become their preference,” he said.

AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

The public awareness campaign on the significance of the terrapins’ survival, implemented since the past three years, has begun to take effect.

Aug 31 last year saw the Terengganu government collaborating with the United States-based Turtle Conservation Fund (TCF) and Turtle Survival Alliance of Cleveland Metroparks Zoo to unveil the “Love Terrapins” programme.

This year, it was UMT’s turn to launch the “Rescue Our Terrapins” programme.

The programme saw UMT releasing 50 “Batagur Baska” terrapins, aged 2-3 years at the Pak Long Teh sandbar, Sungai Setiu, located near Kampung Mangkok.

The event was held in conjunction with the country’s 50th anniversary of independence.

Each of the terrapins carried a microchip that enables the amphibian to be identified.

– BERNAMA

Environmental failures ‘put humanity at risk’

Guardian – Martin Hodgson

The future of humanity has been put at risk by a failure to address environmental problems including climate change, species extinction and a growing human population, according to a new UN report.

In a sweeping audit of the world’s environmental wellbeing, the study by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that governments are still failing to recognise the seriousness of major environmental issues.

The study, involving more than 1,400 scientists, found that human consumption had far outstripped available resources. Each person on Earth now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the planet can supply, it finds.

Meanwhile, biodiversity is seriously threatened by the impact of human activities: 30% of amphibians, 23% of mammals and 12% of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in 10 of the world’s large rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea.

The report – entitled Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development – reviews progress made since a similar study in 1987 which laid the groundwork for studying environmental issues affecting the planet.

Since the 1987 study, Our Common Future, the global response “has in some cases been courageous and inspiring,” said the environment programme’s executive director Achim Steiner. The international community has cut ozone-damaging chemicals, negotiated the Kyoto protocol and other international environmental treaties and supported a rise in protected areas which cover 12% of the world.

“But all too often [the response] has been slow and at a pace and scale that fails to respond to or recognise the magnitude of the challenges facing the people and the environment of the planet,” Mr Steiner said. “The systematic destruction of the Earth’s natural and nature-based resources has reached a point where the economic viability of economies is being challenged – and where the bill we hand to our children may prove impossible to pay,” he said.

Climate change is a global priority that demands political leadership, but there has been “a remarkable lack of urgency” in the response, which the report characterised as “woefully inadequate”.

The report’s authors say its objective is “not to present a dark and gloomy scenario, but an urgent call to action”.

It warns that tackling the problems may affect the vested interests of powerful groups, and that the environment must be moved to the core of decision-making.

The report said irreversible damage to the world’s climate will be likely unless greenhouse gas emissions drop to below 50% of their 1990 levels before 2050.

To reach this level, the richer countries must cut emissions by 60% to 80% by 2050 and developing countries must also make significant reductions, it says.

It addresses a number of areas where environmental degradation is threatening human welfare and the planet, including water, over-fishing and biodiversity – where the UNEP says a sixth, human-induced, extinction is under way.

Billions of people in the developing world are put at risk by a failure to remedy relatively simple problems such as waterborne disease, the study says.

The 550-page report took five years to prepare. It was researched and drafted by almost 400 scientists, whose findings were peer-reviewed by 1,000 others.

One of the report’s authors, Joseph Alcamo said that race is on to determine if leaders move fast enough to save the planet. “The question for me, for us perhaps, is whether we’re going to make it to a more slowly changing world or whether we’re going to hit a brick wall in the Earth’s system first,” he said. “Personally, I think this could be one of the most important races that humanity will ever run.”

In numbers:

· 45 thousand square miles of forest are lost across the world each year

· 60% of the world’s major rivers have been dammed or diverted

· 34%: the amount by which the world’s population has grown in the last 20 years

· 75 thousand people a year are killed by natural disasters

· 50%: The percentage by which populations of fresh fish have declined in 20 years

· 20%: How much the energy requirements of developed countries such as the United States have increased in the period

Primates in danger of becoming extinct

Associated Press

BANGKOK, Thailand — Almost a third of all apes, monkeys and other primates are in danger of going extinct because of rampant destruction of their tropical habitat, the commercial sale of bush meat and the trade in illegal wildlife, a report released Friday (Oct. 26) said. Twenty-five of the most endangered primates are singled out in the report, which was to be presented at the International Primatological Society in Hainan, China. Among those most at risk are the Miss Waldron’s red colobus of Ivory Coast and Ghana, the Golden-headed langur of Vietnam and China’s Hainan gibbon, whose numbers have dwindled to 17. The Horton Plains slender loris of Sri Lanka has been sighted just four times since 1937.

Overall, 114 of the world’s 394 primate species are classified as threatened with extinction by the World Conservation Union or IUCN.

“You could fit all the surviving members of the 25 species in a single football stadium; that’s how few of them remain on Earth today,” said Conservation International President Russell A. Mittermeier, who also chairs the World Conservation Union’s Primate Specialist Group which prepared the report with the International Primatological Society.

“The situation is worst in Asia, where tropical forest destruction and the hunting and trading of monkeys puts many species at terrible risk,” he said. “Even newly discovered species are severely threatened from loss of habitat and could soon disappear.”

The 25 most endangered primates include 11 from Asia, seven from Africa, four from Madagascar and three from South and Central America. The list includes well-known primates like the Sumatran orangutan of Indonesia and the Cross River gorilla of Cameroon and Nigeria as well as lesser known species such as the Greater bamboo lemur from Madagascar.

Six species are on the biannual report for the first time, including a recently discovered Indonesian tarsier that has yet to be formally named and the Kipunji from Tanzania, which was discovered in 2003.

“Some of the new species we discover are endangered from the get go because they are living in restricted areas,” Mittermeier said. “If you find a news species and it’s living in an area heavily impacted by habitat destruction and hunting, you recognize it’s in trouble.”

Habitat loss due to the clearing of tropical forests for agriculture, logging, and the collection of fuel wood continues to be the major factor in the declining number of primates, according to the report.

In addition, climate change is altering the habitats of many species, leaving those with small habitat ranges even more vulnerable to extinction, it says.

Hunting for subsistence and commercial purposes is another major threat to primates, especially in Africa and Asia. Live capture for the pet trade also poses a serious threat, particularly to Asian species, the report found.

Four primates species on the list from Vietnam have been “decimated” by hunting for their meat and bones, according to Barney Long, a conservation biologist based in Vietnam for WWF Greater Mekong Program.

“All four species are close to extinction,” Long said, of Delacour’s langur, Golden-headed langur, Grey-shanked douc and Tonkin snub-nosed monkey. “The key populations have been stabilized. But there needs to be a lot more law enforcement and work to persuade local communities to support conservation for those numbers to increase.”

But the news, the report says, is not all bad.

Nine primates from the last report in 2004 were taken off mostly because of bolstered conservation efforts to save their populations. Among them are the Eastern gorilla from Africa, the Black-faced lion tamarin and the Buffy-headed tufted capuchin from Brazil and the Perrier’s sifaka from Madagascar.

“If you invest in a species in a proper way and do the conservation measures needed, you can reduce risk of extinction,” Mittermeier said. “If we had resources, we would be able to take every one of the species off the list in the next five or 10 years.”